Nepal - Painting a Picture of Kathmandu

Kathmandu has often been referred to as an "International Toilet". Even the local sherpas will call it that as they know it is quite polluted and run down. When we were first driving from the airport to Thamel it was even evident then at night that the streets were lined with garbage and many of the buildings were crumbling and dirty. Thamel is the main backpacker area of Kathmandu. It is a congested area with narrow streets, fairly high buildings and power lines everywhere. The city is notorious for blackouts as the electricity is very inconsistent. The streets themselves are barely one-lane yet two cars have been known to drive down them, and, like most Asian cities, motorbikes are the preferred mode of transport. I have never heard so much horn honking in my life. People in Kathmandu do not give a nice short honk though, but instead keep their hand firmly on the horn for a good 15 seconds. Most of the time they have no good reason to do this as there may not even be a car nearby. It is actually quite annoying. You cannot eat dinner without the constant honking coming from the streets below. Speaking of dinner, restaurants in Nepal are usually on the rooftops or second storeys of buildings. You can eat dinner on a balcony overlooking the streets below. The streets are old and so are the buildings. In little alleys or at a corner, one can often find small stupas or religious buildings. They are so interspersed and it becomes so commonplace that you soon begin to take no notice of them although at first they were a great sight. At this point in time you are probably thinking: why would anyone want to visit this terrible city? It’s true that a few days in Kathmandu can be a little much to handle, but it also has nice people, hand-crafter souvenirs and a crazy, fascinating draw that many cities in the world don’t have. Even though the picture I’ve painted isn’t exactly fabulous, we actually really enjoyed our time in Kathmandu and Nepal in general. It was one of our favourite countries to visit and I would highly recommended travelling there.